CANBERRA, Feb 25: Australian Prime Minister John Howard refused to comment on Tuesday on remarks by Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad comparing victims of the Bali bombings to “collateral” casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But Mr Howard made clear his contempt, telling reporters here he would not dignify Mr Mahathir’s remarks, made in a speech to the NAM in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, with a response.

In a vitriolic attack over the threat of war against Iraq, Mahathir compared the political and military leaders of the world’s great powers unflatteringly with suicide terrorists.

“If the innocent people who died in the attack on Afghanistan and those who have been dying from lack of food and medical care in Iraq are considered collaterals, are the 3,000 who died in New York and the 200 in Bali also just collaterals whose deaths are necessary for operations to succeed?” he said.

While the terrorists died as they attacked, “the great warriors who press the buttons see nothing of the mangled bodies, the heads and limbs which are torn from disembowelled bodies, the blood and the gore of the innocent people.”

But Howard would not be drawn, saying: “I won’t dignify those comments with a response.”—AFP